Well, the epic Kamy team will be splitting up shortly - to become two separate people by the names of Kaila and Amy. Sad, truly.

This spork is symbolic of our mutual attachment....soon to be broken by the tragedy of distance

So we had our last night out last night. We're in Saigon, having just come from Mui Ne, and we are flying out on Sunday, as I believe I've mentioned before. We decided to make last night our final night out, since Amy has to wake up pretty early tomorrow morning to catch her 9:45am flight to Bangkok.

We managed to find a place called "Le Pub", which is a carbon copy of the one in Hanoi, where we spent a lot of our nights out there. We had decided to drink margaritas, and it took us forEVER to explain that we wanted strawberry margaritas instead of lime ones, and that we didn't want daquiris, and that we wanted a pitcher, not individual glasses. So we were frustrated when the server brought us over two glasses of what appeared to be gin and tonics. Turns out though, it was just a nice guy inside saying hello with drinks. He came over and sat with us - turns out he's Canadian, and he's lived in Saigon for five years.

Then, we randomly see these two German boys who we've been running into all over the country since Hue. We invite them to come sit with us, and then a little later, we all head off to a club called Bounce.

Bounce was pretty cool, but after a while, we realized that we were the only ones dancing. So we told the Canadian boys that we wanted to go to the Crazy Bulldog. They took us there, and we ran into this guy Daemon, who we met in Chiang Mai!! Random!!

I have to say, I was not overly impressed with Saigon's famous "nightlife". It was mostly prostitutes and white guys. I think the nightlife was better in Hanoi, to be honest!! But don't get me wrong, once you meet the right people you can have a great time anywhere.  

Overall, it was a successful night. But we're incredibly sad that it was the last one...for a while, at least.;)

It was another unnaturally early morning today. Had to wake up at 4:15am to go see the sand dunes. This is because, of course, the sun rises so god damned early. Why can't it hold off for a few hours so the rest of us travelers can get some sleep?

I booked a tour yesterday with Amy, but unfortunately Amy had been puking all night, and didn't want to be more than 10 feet from a toilet, so she wasn't able to join. My jeep was 10 minutes late picking me up - which wouldn't be a problem, were it not for the fact that the sun waits for no one.

Nevertheless, we made it on time. The sun was a huge orange ball rising over the horizon - very beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. After that, I went and explored the dunes. Some people tried to slide down the hills on plastic slides they bought from a local man on the way up, but it was more like they were pushing themselves down the mountain. It didn't look like much fun at all. Sleds are meant for snow. 

See? Sand dunes are pretty neat

Since Amy couldn't be there, I decided to make it look like she was:

 
(she wasn't actually though...she had a date with the toilet bowl instead)

The sand dunes were easily the coolest part of the tour. After that, I was taken to a bunch of kinda BS places like a fishing village, and "fairy stream", which is basically just a stream running over sand with some kinda cool stalactite formations. Yawn. (sorry guess I'm getting kinda jaded)

But I did get to see a Vietnamese woman club an eel at the fishing village: 

...so that was kind of neat.

It was certainly a weird feeling to be done a five-hour tour by 10am. Have been sitting at this wifi cafe ever since, fueled on iced coffees and a strange yogurt drink. Amy has requested chocolate milk so I gotta go get her some. Then probably going to go catch some sleep on the beach today. Need to get my tan ready for Boracay....;) 

It's difficult to pick one thing that made today the best day ever. It could have been the six meter free jump, or the rappelling down a 30 meter waterfall, or the waterfall slide, or the rollercoaster down the mountain......it was just a day of pure awesomeness.

Amy and I ready to rock this bitch

The car ride to the jumping off point was surprisingly quick (anyone who's done tours in Southeast Asia knows that it's usually a good hour or two ride to the start of the tour). After only about 15 minutes, we were parking and hopping out of the jeep. The item on the menu was a rollercoaster ride down the mountain. The alternative was walking down. OBVIOUSLY we chose the rollercoaster!!

Ridin down the rollercoaster

Our guides, Tri and Ving, were totally amazing - very cool and adventurous guys who really made the day rock. 

After that wicked experience, we hiked for a bit and arrived at a small cliff, where we learned to rappel properly.

The trick: lean back and spread your legs. So there was Amy and I, jumping down the cliff, singing Lean Back by Fat Joe.

Getting a rappelling lesson from Ving

Once we were experts in rappelling, we headed on to the next cliff - this one was 22 meters. A bit high, but no challenge too unsurmountable. We hopped our way down that one no probs. Then we did one more for good luck. At the bottom of the third one, we stopped for a tasty lunch of baguettes and yummy fillings. We watched the water gush by our feet and took in the gorgeous scenery.

Alright girls, time to walk the line (we made it!!)

Then, it was time to get wet. But first, we had to walk over a thin log overtop a stream. It seemed impossible, but our amazing guides convinced us we could do it. AND WE DID!!

Next, we were told by our Ving and Tri to sit down in the water, while they held our life jackets (yes, we had to wear geeky orange life vests and helmets......whatever we were hardcore). We slid down the water fall like it was a water slide: first forwards, then backwards and upside down! It was crazy. My flip flops broke and I lost my sunglasses, but whatever it was worth it. And, bless his heart, Tri let me borrow his flip flops to wear, while he made do on my broken ones. Check out this video of all of us doing the slide together:

Thoroughly soaked, we dragged our asses out of the water and did some more hiking. 

Now, it was time for the real crazy part of the day: canyoning down a waterfall. Now, I thought that maybe it would make sense to me why anyone would ever want to do this after I did it, but having done it, I can safely say that I still don't really get it. Amy went ahead, but slipped and banged her jaw (which began bleeding like a mo'fo'), so she was a bit frazzled and decided to take the land route down. A bit nerve-stricken from all this drama, I took some deep breaths and leaned back into the waterfall. It was incredibly scary, with the water rushing down over my face, and not really being able to see. And I slipped twice, but managed to pull myself together and get back on the right path.

When I got to the bottom and started swimming in the water, I realized that I had pretty much lost all function of my hands. Tri had to literally pull me up onto the rock because my hands had cramped up so much that I was in quite a bit of pain. It went away quickly, but I realized that they must have started cramping while I was on the waterfall, but the adrenaline kept the pain away until I was down the fall.

Just hangin' 10 meters up in a waterfall...no biggie

As if there wasn't enough adrenaline coursing through our veins, it wasnow time to free jump off a six meter cliff. Ving went first, then Amy,then me. It was scary, but freaking exhilarating!! I even went a secondtime, this time Ving and I went together. It was awesome.

She may have split her chin open, but she can still crack a smile

Amy, unfortunately, had a chin dripping with blood and a sore jaw. Nevertheless, we had a mountain to climb. It was straight uphill for about half a kilometer (cuz our legs weren't screaming enough already). But the adrenaline helped us push through.

What. A. Day.

By the way - if anyone is in Dalat, or headed that way, and wants to repeat our amazing adventure day, head to YouthAction (across the street from Chocolate restaurant). Any tour guide that gives me his sandals to use has a special place in my heart. They also took Amy to the hospital after we got back and sat with her while the doctor gave her four stitches.

He even took this photo of her. YouthAction (specifically Tri and Ving) are amazing and we love them.

Well, Amy and I are approaching the end of our time in Vietnam, and, in fact, our sojourn across Southeast Asia. She leaves me on the 13th of December (that's next Sunday), and the same day, I fly from Saigon to Manila. It's incredibly sad, and we're both trying not to think about it. We've had such an incredible (life changing, even!!) five months traveling this amazing region, and time has flown by so quickly, that it's hard to believe it's quickly coming to an end.

Amy and I always have fun together...even on crappy buses

That said, they have not ended yet. We're currently in Dalat (it's high in the mountains, and freaking cold!!). Tomorrow, we're going canyoning (which, as I mentioned on my Twitter status, I wasn't even aware was a verb until today...in fact, even the spell checker on this computer doesn't recognize it as a word - give options like cannoning and cantoning, but no canyoning). It basically involves rappelling down 22 meter cliffs and all that good fun. The cliff we're going on is actually a waterfall - I'm a bit confused by this. Why wouldn't we go to one that doesn't have water gushing into our faces? Wouldn't you be able to see a lot better? Anyways, it is what it is.

We're planning to leave Dalat on Sunday, and push on to Mui Ne, which is a beach town famous for sand dunes. Apparently, you can sled down them. THAT sounds pretty damn cool. What doesn't sound cool is that you have to get up at 4am to see the sunrise over the sand dunes. Why are people so obsessed with sunrises? Why aren't they more obsessed with sleep? Sunrises are unnatural. We're going to spend three or four nights in Mui Ne, and then head back to Saigon.

Next Friday is going to be a big one, since it's our last party night before Amy leaves (we don't want to do it Saturday, since we both have flights on Sunday). Thinking Amy needs to try some karaoke...